Unveiling Modernity in Twentieth-Century West African Islamic Reforms

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BRILL, Aug 27, 2012 - History - 383 pages
In this book Ousman Kobo analyzes the origins of Wahhabi-inclined reform movements in two West African countries. Commonly associated with recent Middle Eastern influences, reform movements in Ghana and Burkina Faso actually began during the twilight of European colonial rule in the 1950s and developed from local doctrinal contests over Islamic orthodoxy. These early movements in turn gradually evolved in ways sympathetic to Wahhabi ideas. Kobo also illustrates the modernism of this style of Islamic reform. The decisive factor for most of the movements was the alliance of secularly educated Muslim elites with Islamic scholars to promote a self-consciously modern religiosity rooted in the Prophet Muhammad s traditions. This book therefore provides a fresh understanding of the indigenous origins of Wahhabism.
 

Contents

Introduction
1
Part One History
51
Introduction to Part One
52
Chapter One Islam Prior to the Colonial Period
53
Islam under British and French Rule
71
Part Two Early Implantation
119
Introduction to Part Two
120
Genesis of Wahhabism in Burkina Faso
121
Wahhabism in Ghana 19701998
211
Islamic Reform and Modernity from Within and from Without
237
Part Four A New Phase of Wahhabism 1990 to Present
281
Introduction to Part Four
282
Chapter Eight From Rejection to Coexistence
283
Chapter Nine Conscripts of Modernity and Wahhabi Reform
311
References
339
Appendix
357

Tarbiya and the Beginning of Wahhabism in Ghana
153
1970s1990s
183
Introduction to Part Three
184
Chapter Five Mouvement Sunnite of Burkina Faso 19731988
187

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About the author (2012)

Ousman Murzik Kobo, Ph.D (2005), University of Wisconsin-Madison, is Professor of History at Ohio State University. His research and teaching interests include 20th century West African social and religious history as well as the social history of West African migrants in the United States. His publications include "The Development of Wahhabi Reforms in Ghana and Burkina Faso, 1960 1990: Elective Affinities between Western-Educated Muslims and Islamic Scholars" (Comparative Studies in Society and History, 2009).

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